Lab Building (née Hotel Hampshire) | 34-40 Hampshire St. | Cambridge

bigpicture7 said:
dude, what you were doing was trivializing someone else's neighborhood. No sh!t you weren't serious about actual structural collapse.

Honestly, regarding aB in general, I love 50% of the projects and dislike 50% of them (or thereabouts), but, from the heart, one thing I never do on here is joke about wishing failure upon projects because such failure affects actual innocent humans surrounding them who had nothing to do with investing in the projects (e.g., "haha, that developer went bankrupt and left a hole in the ground with a barbed wire fence around it," "heehee, those units will never sell," "hope that thing rots in place").

Example: I am significantly more distanced from that stalled lab project on McGrath, and I never wanted there to be more labs build there in the first pace, but it brings me pain to see a hole left in the ground there and I refrain from sh!itting on that situation. It genuinely sucks for people near it to have to live by a pit for (probably) years.

I am sharing my values here not because I expect you to share them precisely, or feel the same way as me about posting etiquette. I'm sharing them because I respect you as a forumer and share a lot of other opinions with you about urbanism and development, and so wanted you to understand the nature of my reaction here. I am glad to chalk it up to a joke whose humor I don't share. Onward and upward to the next discussion.
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All good. No prob with attacking a post. Just no need for personal attacks, ok.
 
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The finished sidewalk is probably the best part of this project.
 
cburns said:
could this be more hostile?
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Hard to say. That looks like vents for mechanicals on the ground floor on the right. Do they make sure that's good and loud? Blast damp exhaust on pedestrians? Lots of new buildings do that as an extra FU to passersby.
 
ritchiew said:
Hard to say. That looks like vents for mechanicals on the ground floor on the right. Do they make sure that's good and loud? Blast damp exhaust on pedestrians? Lots of new buildings do that as an extra FU to passersby.
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Don't give the developer/management any ideas ;) . The complete disdain for their surroundings and surrounding humanoids has already been clearly expressed.
 
ritchiew said:
Hard to say. That looks like vents for mechanicals on the ground floor on the right. Do they make sure that's good and loud? Blast damp exhaust on pedestrians? Lots of new buildings do that as an extra FU to passersby.
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And there is a (probably) already dead tree planted in the sidewalk in front of the vents. "Classy" design.
 
Perhaps the architects were thoughtfully taking contextual cues from the facade immediately to the right along Hampshire St? The rolling slat door and vents needed to be honored in this new facade as well, in keeping character with the streetscape?
 
I think the slatted doors on the right have a transformer behind them.
 
Honestly, as bad as this street level is (and it is atrocious), the biggest slap in the face here is not the building design itself. The biggest slap in the face is that it was supposed to be a nice corner hotel building (which went through an extensive special permitting process, and was approved), but these owners just HAD to do a sharp pivot to lab space mid-pandemic because "OMG everything has to be labs asap!!!" Non-thinking reactivity is just a recipe for total crap.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Honestly, as bad as this street level is (and it is atrocious), the biggest slap in the face here is not the building design itself. The biggest slap in the face is that it was supposed to be a nice corner hotel building (which went through an extensive special permitting process, and was approved), but these owners just HAD to do a sharp pivot to lab space mid-pandemic because "OMG everything has to be labs asap!!!" Non-thinking reactivity is just a recipe for total crap.
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Well, given this owner's aesthetic sense, maybe we are lucky this isn't a hotel. No one would stay there anyway.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Well, given this owner's aesthetic sense, maybe we are lucky this isn't a hotel. No one would stay there anyway.
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Well I am just basing this sentiment on the hotel design that launched this thread (see early posts). They are a million times better than this.
 
As a reminder here's what was there before. This is on the peripheral of the square, not exactly the best location for retail/ground floor commercial. In fact when I clicked around streetview the whole area is still semi desolate. There's a lot of more important and central parcels than this one. While this may not be a great result it's also as trivial as trivial could be to draw so much moping, complaining, and general ire from this board. Go fight some battles that are actually worth fighting, because like it or not this one is in the books.

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DZH22 said:
As a reminder here's what was there before. This is on the peripheral of the square, not exactly the best location for retail/ground floor commercial. In fact when I clicked around streetview the whole area is still semi desolate. There's a lot of more important and central parcels than this one. While this may not be a great result it's also as trivial as trivial could be to draw so much moping, complaining, and general ire from this board. Go fight some battles that are actually worth fighting, because like it or not this one is in the books.

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Don't think it's correct to say the "whole area is still semi desolate" when a block away is dense residential in one direction and the One Kendall Square development in another direction... not exactly industrial wasteland just because it's on the border of Kendall / Central / Inman. This corner deserved more for the streetscape
 
developboston said:
Don't think it's correct to say the "whole area is still semi desolate" when a block away is dense residential in one direction and the One Kendall Square development in another direction... not exactly industrial wasteland just because it's on the border of Kendall / Central / Inman. This corner deserved more for the streetscape
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None of those have ground floor retail, and neither does this. So arguably it fits in. It's "desolate" from the pedestrian standpoint, essentially the same as before (minus 1 pizza place that went out of business years ago) and nothing has changed on that front.
 
DZH22 said:
As a reminder here's what was there before. This is on the peripheral of the square, not exactly the best location for retail/ground floor commercial. In fact when I clicked around streetview the whole area is still semi desolate.
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I totally disagree. It's kitty corner to this square. It's a bunch of restaurants and other businesses. It's been a busy, pedestrian heavy spot for a long, long time. It's a near-ish the train and a nice place to hang out before or after a movie at the theater a block away. There are also shops and restaurants scatters on the surrounding streets. This building could have contributed to that aspect of the neighborhood. It's sad it didn't, and opted for blank walls instead.

DZH22 said:
While this may not be a great result it's also as trivial as trivial could be to draw so much moping, complaining, and general ire from this board. Go fight some battles that are actually worth fighting, because like it or not this one is in the books.
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This is an architecture forum, and people are complaining about the architecture. Seems fine to me.

I'd go a step further and say it's really good to pick apart failures like this, dissect what specifically is wrong, and maybe change some of the processes that created it.
 
ritchiew said:
I totally disagree. It's kitty corner to this square. It's a bunch of restaurants and other businesses. It's been a busy, pedestrian heavy spot for a long, long time. It's a near-ish the train and a nice place to hang out before or after a movie at the theater a block away. There are also shops and restaurants scatters on the surrounding streets. This building could have contributed to that aspect of the neighborhood. It's sad it didn't, and opted for blank walls instead.


This is an architecture forum, and people are complaining about the architecture. Seems fine to me.

I'd go a step further and say it's really good to pick apart failures like this, dissect what specifically is wrong, and maybe change some of the processes that created it.
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+1. You are right on. For whatever reason, the one argument being made in defense of this atrocious building is pretty strange - - 'even though there is dense residential one block away, it borders One Kendall Square development and is in between Kendall/Central/Inman there is no current ground retail in the area, so none is needed' ...... is at the least, a very curious point of view.

If true, one would actually conclude ground retail is MORE needed in such a place - - not only for what is there now, but to ENCOURAGE economic growth in this growing location. And hell, this thing is across the street from Mamaleh's - - this isn't Mass and Cass. Maybe someone is afraid to lose Advance Tire and Car Care Center to the inevitable wrecking ball.

You're also right about assuming most people here were in favor of quality architecture and urban planning. Who knew?
 
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